My Philadelphia Story
I feel like my blog is fastly becoming a travel blog as of late, since now I'm gonna share some highlights from my recent impromptu trip to Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday.

It's only a 2 hour trip from NYC by car and neither my traveling partner nor I had been to the city of brotherly love before. It was indeed a friendly city and perfect for a quick weekend adventure. Unfortunately the weather on Saturday didn't want to cooperate so we spent the day trying to keep dry at the National Constitution Center seeing the Benjamin Franklin: In Search of A Better World exhibit that's running until April 30th, which was really very interesting especially when the fire alarm went off and the whole place had to evacuate and go back out into the rain. The center included the first public printing of the Constitution in a Philly newspaper plus lots of actual Ben Franklin artifacts, manuscripts and portraits.

We stayed at The Latham Hotel in downtown near all the fancy shops, ate at the yummy and fashionable Continental (much like a larger Cafeteria that's in Manhattan) and drank mojitos and did some salsa and meringue out on the dance floor at Cuba Libre. They had two professional dancers dance first and during the applause a guy near me at the bar asked, "Do you dance?" Pointing to the impressive couple on the dance floor, I was like, "Not like that!" Although I haven't had any lessons, except the steps my friend's husband Eddy showed me one time, I think I managed to hold my own, well, either way it was fun as was the place.

The next day was much nicer and sunnier so we got to see more of the city outside the mall and hit all the tourist highlights. Saw the famous Liberty Bell (smaller than I thought it would be), ran up the Rocky steps, received palms at Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, saw the Delaware River and the LOVE sculpture, rode the metro and bus and of course ate a cheese steak from Pats (so yummy, cheesy, greasy--I'm still full).

Here I am thinking I'm a Rocky-ette and a photo of the museum steps:


Some personal conclusions on the city: small streets, friendly people, scary alleyways, lots of fountains--actually the city seems fountain obsessed really, quaint buildings, lots of history and "benergy," pretty quiet for a city, not too many people and there's a reason why they are called 'Philly' cheese steaks and it's well deserved.
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On a sadder note, today would have been my Dad's 52nd birthday. In honor of his bday and lotto affection/addiction (he'd spend 20 bucks a day playing the numbers) I'm gonna play 410 today in NY's Lotto.

A weighty issue
Among my girls there seems to be varying opinions on whether or not you loose or gain weight when starting a new relationship.

There's the common idea that new lovers are too in love to eat (um haven't had that happen) and there is also the idea that someone is now seeing you naked so that makes you keep in shape (been there), thus at a start of a relationship you are at your best.

I was just watching a rerun of Frasier and Daphne Moon tells the Cranes that she's already experiencing the 3 signs of being in love, she says, "I'm not eating, I find myself thinking about him all the time and buying new underwear." :)

My friend though, pointed out the flip side by saying that when you're dating you are eating out all the time and or drinking. Thus, you're actually gaining weight because you're happy and don't care about mundane things like working out or have the time to fit going to the gym in your even busier schedule. There's also the bedroom activities that can help work up an appetite, but then again you're also burning calories too. I guess the debate continues. What do you think?

Toga Girl # 8
Just got back from three days of sun and fun, definitely accomplished my main goal of getting a tan and relaxing. The hotel room was pretty dated, no carpets, the bare minimum, but the beach made up for any hotel lackings. The crowd was a little too spring breaky for us too, but whatcha gonna do? There was even a bunch of high school kids, which I think is crazy. We did meet a group of 30 firemen from Long Island who were there celebrating their station's 100th anniversary. We then spent the rest of the weekend avoiding one of the guys. He was nice and all, but I wasn't interested, I also suspect he was at least a year younger than me.

OK I lied I don't have any videos for you, I never got around to taking any or bringing out my video camera during the trip. I guess what happens in Nassau is going to stay in Nassau. To fill you in though, I went snorkeling, played volleyball, read After the Night, won some games of pool, got my hair braided, went snorkeling, did Karaoke and went on their stage to take place in a toga competition. Neither of us won, mainly because my friend and I didn't have a group of friends to cheer us on like the others did, but how often do you get a chance to wear a toga? See photos below:


Away from the trip... I had helped get my Step dad and his company in the following New England Magazine article, which is a section of the Hartford Courant. The article, Don't Blow Your Millions, ran yesterday when I got back from vacation.

Review: My latest film review at Film School Rejects is now up, it's on the teen comedy She's The Man.

As seen on
When Tara Met Blog is featured on Delight.com today, in regards to my post about CityMitts on March 14. They call me "a sassy-savvy New York gal." I'm pretty excited since I've been checking delight.com often for online shopping bargains and coupons. I wanted a bath mat that they featured recently but the color was no longer available, whatcha gonna do? Apparently the site is going to be retooled and redesigned this spring too.

Also been meaning to mention this for a few weeks now...I was added to the 'B list' at Blogebrity, which is also pretty cool.

PS: I'm going to be MIA the rest of the week. I'm heading for a 3 day trip to Nassau with my friend Karen. We're flying JetBlue and staying at one of those all inclusive places (Breezes) where the food, drinks and room are included in the package. So we're looking at a fun and relatively cheap weekend. I need some sun, I think this is the whitest I've been yet, none of my olive Italian coloring can be found. I'm bringing my video camera so who knows what fun stuff (blackmail) I'll come back with ;)

New York Rangers
It's easy to forget that the team even exists in the city sometimes due to all the fuss over our baseball teams (well deserved though) and even the attention we give the crappy ass Knicks, which is why I never think of getting tickets to see them play. I can't claim to be a hockey guru but I do like hockey inspired films like Miracle and Mighty Ducks and catch the Olympic games, but I hardly follow the NHL--not that having a strike made it any easier. I went to the game last night though and had a great time. I've only been twice before, both times they were Rangers matches.

I'm always amazed how Madison Square Garden can go from the spacious basketball arena to the oblong hockey rink. I especially like that even way up in the cheap seats, where I was, you can feel the chill of the ice. The seats were so high up they made the tix that I had for U2, which was also at MSG, look like I was sitting on the stage. Despite the many many steps we had to climb to reach our seats, they were actually pretty good. It was easier to see all the action and to track the puck, even when it was slapped into the stands and hit a Playboy Playmate of the Year. I saw it too, although I didn't know that she was a Playboy bunny at the time not until I read the news today. I just saw security guards hurrying over to the blonde below. Oh and NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon was in attendence as well, the jumbo-tron pointed him out.

Besides that, the game itself was really action packed too. The Rangers were down by two in the second period, the score was 2 to 4 Buffalo Sabers (who I didn't even know existed) then the Rangers scored two goals to tie the game. The crowd went from yelling things like "It's not like you're on ice skates" and "do something!" to cheering like mad. I love that about NY fans, how easily we jeer our own team and then cheer them on minutes later. So the tied score brought us into overtime and then to an exciting shootout, where the Rangers finally declared victory.

I also got to see the Ranger player Jagr (not to be confused with the shot) tie two of the team's records for the most goals (52) and points (109) scored during one season. Not sure what the difference between points and goals are though. Too bad he didn't beat the record instead of tieing it so I could witnessed that. Ah well.

Another fun feature of the Rangers' games is the song that they play when ever they score a goal. Everyone gets up and chants GOAL! But it's dragged out like GO-O-EL. It's hard to write and not sing. In fact i'm singing it in my head right now. Oh and on another side note, I'm not a big fan of the new Ranger uniforms with the liberty figure on it and miss the classic symbol they had before.

Jagr, Rangers slash Sabres
NY Daily News
In an awesome display of talent and will, Jaromir Jagr erased a two-goal deficit, tied the club's two most prestigious single-season records and got the Rangers into position to win a shootout in a 5-4 triumph last night. FULL STORY

More news: Historic night ends with 5-4 comeback victory